Red, White and Blue

Flowers growing in the yard in Effie.

Leaving On Sunday

(The entire left side of the house was torn off and the roof is in a neighbor's tree)

I am trying to get things done up here so that I can leave on Sunday, I have a moving van coming on Friday to pick up what furniture isn't demolished. I am keeping my fingers crossed that my musical instruments weren't right under the rain. I don't think it would do a piano much good to get rained on. The roof is gone, on the whole left side of the house, so the beds will be ruined. I guess that I can not stay inside the house. I am going to take my tent and sleeping bag, and maybe sleep in the yard. Or the kitchen. I guess the roof is still on in the kitchen. But I am sure it is structurally unsafe.

My neighbor said that the National Guard came by this morning and said that my house was the worst hit and had the most devastation they had seen so far. I guess my house was directly in the line of the tornado. My neighbor had a tree tossed into their back door, and their dog pens are totally gone. They have no idea where they ended up. I guess my dog pen is twisted metal, and the roof is totally gone from the shed out back. The only thing still standing with a roof is the laundry shed, so I guess I can still wash clothes, if I had electricity, water and gas. I think all of the services have been turned off for safety.

I can't quite picture it in my mind, and don't really want to. I keep thinking I will wake up and it was all just a bad dream. Once I have moved out all the stuff that I want, I guess I will just walk away........turn everything off.....and desert the house. Once I stop mowing the lawn, no one will be able to get to it anymore anyway, and it will just be one of those old house carcasses you see out in a field and wonder, gee, what is the story there.........

It was a majestic old house, one of the earliest built in Avoyelles Parrish. It is pictured in books of record having been built by old Doc LaFargue before the turn of the century. It sat on a knoll overlooking a row of stately oaks with a curved driveway that ran in front of the house. It sits on five acres and I always thought it the loveliest spot in the world. The only two trees left standing that weren't twisted are the sycamore in the back yard and an old dead oak that we have wished would fall down. Oh Sure, it is still standing. haha

Good New, Bad News

The good news is my home in Effie survived the hurricane, the bad news, the next night a tornado came through and destroyed the house and took out all of the trees in the front yard..........

I guess the place is total devastation. The houses in the neighborhood as well. For me it is sad, but I wasn't living in the house, for the neighbors it is their only home. So there is sadness all around this morning. I am leaving soon, won't be here for awhile, I will be very busy. I have the moving people coming and moving out what is salvageable. The rest, I will set along the road for the people who want it, or for the trash man.

The roof of the house is in a neighbors tree and it twisted out all the old oaks in my front yard. I guess I only have one tree left in the back. The yard was beautiful, well no longer. The house was over a hundred years old. I imagine it has seen many a tornado pass by but this time it didn't pass by, it hit it smack dab in the middle.

For me it is an omen. I had been pondering my future. Wondering about what I should do with my life after Nick was grown, should I move back, should I stay here. Now that option is totally closed, so I guess I can not give that any more thought. My year in Effie were a blimp on the map of my life, and it is over now, a tornado finished it off. I will now let that time of my life rest in peace.

I won't be returning to Effie to live, in a way it is a relief, I don't have to make any decisions now, except how to clean up the mess.......

Looking Towards Fall

I always love this time of year when the trees begin to turn from green to gold and the air brings with it a smell of autumn. Our temperatures have dropped to the low 70's. Can fall be far off, I don't think so. Usually at this time of year, my thoughts turn towards the Red River and home. I like to be home in time to pick the pecans and clip back the wisteria. I have decided that if things continue as they have been for Nick in school, I can tear myself away and head home soon. He is in a good routine doing his homework and his progress reports reflect good grades. We have had plenty of rain so I can leave without worry that everything will dry up while I am gone. And the kids will feed and take care of the cat. So there is really no reason I can't go home for a month or so. I need the peace of mind that going home brings to me. It is good for my stress level, which greatly affects my physical well being. I never realized when I moved back here to be with the kids, how hard it was going to be on me emotionally. I gave up a lot, no one will ever know how much. Well, what is done, is done. Can't turn back the clock. I can return home, nothing will ever be the same but it is still nice to be home.

Effie

" the huggin tree "

I wish I could get another dog.....I want another dog. But for some reason I can't get one. I know that if I did, I would wish it were Lou. I would probably end up calling it Lou, and then if it didn't do all the cute things that Lou did, I would be sad. So out of loyalty and my love for Lou, I just keep wishing I had a dog and let it go at that. I am going to Effie soon, to stay for awhile, and Lou always went with me. I need to be home right now, I have some sorting out to do in my mind, and I do it best when I am in my own surrounding, with my own things. I am thinking about selling the house in Effie, and I need to be there to really know if it is possible. The house has lots of memories, some very good, some not so good, but all part of my life.

I didn't have a happy childhood. And so I married early to get a home of my own, and then finding out that it isn't the way to do it. I ended up married to someone that I really didn't like very much. Hard to stay married to someone you don't respect as a person. So I divorced after four years.

I married again when I was 21 or 22 to a native American Indian man who was about 9 years older than I, had been married before and had two sons by his previous wife. We had two sons of our own, and with Darrin from my previous marriage that made five boys. Life was hard, we never had enough money because my husband was a drinker, but he was also abusive and after fourteen years of marriage I finally decided, enough was enough and fled to Los Angeles. The reason I chose LA, I knew he would never go there to look for us.

I married Tom late in life, I was 38 and he was 48. I had three kids and had no intention of having more until I got pregnant with Ana. Didn't want to raise her all alone so tried for more. I had two miscarriages between Ana and Nick, so I often think of Nick as my miracle baby.

Well that baby is close to grown now, he is 13. Time to make some plans for the future. I always kept the house in Effie, planning to move back there when the kids were grown and I could. They hated the schools in Effie, so it was pretty much impossible to live there. It wasn't a whim, they were pretty rotten schools. There was no music program, no computers, and not sure what they were teaching the kids, but it wasn't on the same par as the schools that they had come out of in California.

I always traveled home with my dog Lou. When he died and I lost contact with David, going home was kind of sad. So I went less and less frequent. My neighbors watch it very closely, and keep an eye on my things. Partly because they want to buy the house, and partly because they are just nosey. But I have never had to worry, there is a police man that drives by twice a day and he also keeps an eye on my place. But still, it is kind of a waste to have a house sitting totally vacant of life, with all of the necessary items needed to live there. I thought I had it worked out while David was there, but little did I know instead of watching the place he was taking things. Easier than getting a job, I guess.

Tom has always known that I intended to return to Effie once both kids were out of school. I made it very clear when I moved back here. But as time has passed, and life has changed as it has, the reasons to return to Effie have diminished.